Assignment for Paper 4

Using library resources, find at least two published sources pertinent to the subject of happiness, then write a paper which puts those sources into conversation with one another and develops an original argument from that conversation. You may use sources in your paper that we have read for class, but you must include at least two new sources.

Most of what this paper calls for you have already worked on in previous papers: constructing an original argument, structuring a paper around a specific, unified thesis, and summarizing sources. The paper also requires two new skills: using the library to find published sources, and putting sources "into conversation with one another." The former we will address with a session in the library. The second requires some explanation. What is a "conversation between sources"?

I have deliberately used the somewhat open-ended metaphor of conversation to refer to the broad range of ways that academic disciplines use sources in combination with one another. Below are some examples:

• The most obvious is a disagreement: source 1 says X, while source 2 says something which contradicts X. In such a case, you need to summarize the disagreement, and then develop an argument out of that disagreement. Because your argument has to be original, you can't simply argue that either source is completely right, so usually the argument takes the form of some kind of compromise (1 is right about such and such, but 2 is right about so and so) or an alternative (both 1 and 2 overlook Y).
• More subtle is a range of views: on the subject of such and such, source 1 says X, source 2 says Y, source 3 says Z. In many disciplines, one common form of this is a literature review, which is essentially an overview of what previous researchers have written on the topic you're writing about. For this class, I would not expect a comprehensive review, but your summary of the sources might well take the form of an overview. Your original argument might (for example) consist of adding something to this discussion that the others have left out, showing some point of commonality, and so on.
• When your sources generally agree, you are summarizing a consensus. In this case, your job in the original argument is usually to show that the consensus overlooks something, or assumes something questionable, or otherwise requires correcting.
• Yet another way to connect sources is to apply one source to another. Suppose that you wanted to figure out whether contemporary research on happiness (a relatively new and growing field in psychology) supports Aristotle's contention that happiness consists of the "activity of the soul in accordance with virtue." To do this, you might find psychological sources on the relationship between happiness and moral behavior (if they exist), then apply the contemporary research to the older text, using the former as a standard by which to evaluate the latter. Applications of sources can go the other way as well: you might evaluate a claim in some recent book on happiness (there are many published every year, of varying degrees of quality) by applying some idea from Epicurus that you find compelling. (In both of these examples, you would need to make sure that you include two new sources.)

The above is not an exhaustive list; I will accept other kinds of "conversations of sources" for this assignment so long as you show genuine connections between your sources and your original argument is developed out of those connections. (If you are in doubt about an idea that you have, please feel free to run it by me.)